Jennie Gordon (Image courtesy of Jennie Gordon)
By Micaela Myers
At last count, about 86,000 people in Wyoming — including 23,500 children — were struggling with food insecurity, meaning they don’t have enough to eat or aren’t sure where their next meal will come from. Food insecurity affects everything from long-term health to school outcomes.
In 2019, first lady Jennie Gordon, a 1985 University of Wyoming College of Health Sciences alumna, decided to do something about this issue, launching the Wyoming Hunger Initiative to help coordinate efforts and fill gaps. The effort was just in time to meet a rising need brought on by COVID followed by skyrocketing inflation.
“It’s really easy for people in need to feel a stigma when they access resources,” Gordon says. However, it’s important to look at the issue with compassion and to give people grace. “Everyone is just one emergency from being in need,” she adds.
The issue is close to her heart. Gordon’s parents struggled with food insecurity when they were growing up. While she and her nine siblings never missed a meal, they were taught to never waste food, to always be grateful and to help others.
Traveling the state as her husband, Gov. Mark Gordon, campaigned, Jennie Gordon saw firsthand the wonderful work being done by community food pantries and school backpack programs and wanted to ensure such efforts were successful and reached every county and the Wind River Reservation.
To help programs in financial need, the Wyoming Hunger Initiative started out offering grants and quickly added several Wyoming-centric partnerships, including Food from the Field, in which hunters donate game for processing.
“Proteins and produce are two of the least donated and most expensive things for a pantry to purchase,” Gordon says.
Food from the Farm and Ranch also helps meet this need, processing donated or reduced-cost beef or lamb via a joint initiative with the Wyoming Stock Growers Association and the Wyoming Department of Agriculture.
“We also have a garden program called Grow a Little Extra, where people who are already doing a personal garden or community garden can grow an extra row or donate any extra produce,” Gordon says. “We received about 10,000 pounds last year.” This included extra produce grown at the Wyoming Honor Farm.
Gordon’s Wyoming Hunger Initiative efforts earned her the UW Alumni Association Building a Better Wyoming Award for 2023, which recognizes alumni who make a difference in the lives of people in Wyoming and are a source of UW strength and pride.
“I was very surprised and honored,” Gordon says of earning the award. “This work really is an example of Wyoming coming together.”
She encourages others to follow the “four Ps” when looking for ways to get involved and give back to their communities.
“First, you have to have passion for what you’re doing,” Gordon says. “Next, you have to bring people together who are like minded and really have a servant’s heart. Partnerships are also very important. Then perseverance: Don’t let the first roadblock cause you to turn around. Find a way to get through.”
Learn more about the Wyoming Hunger Initiative at www.nohungerwyo.org.